10082021

16 — Vanguard, TUESDAY, AUGUST 10, 2021
The North also cry
BY SOLA EBISENI
IF Nigeria survives this
administration,
President Muhammadu
Buhari would go down in
history as the most
revolutionary ruler of the
Nigerian State having
destroyed the empire of
Uthman Dan Fodio which
since 1804 has altered the
character of the existing
indigenous Hausa states and
many parts of Northern
Nigeria. Despite the obvious
population and territorial
advantage of the areas not
under the jihad, the British not
only recognised the Fulani
Emirate system but also
entrenched same as the
dominant ruling oligarchy to
which it handed the country
at independence.
The urgent and compelling
needs to consolidate the Fodio
revolution was the main
reason Sir Ahmadu Bello,
himself a scion of the
caliphate, preferred the
Premiership of Northern
Nigeria to the Prime Minister
of the entire federation in his
determination to weave a
united Northern nation in
tune with his slogan of 'One
North, One People'. Without
conceding
nor
compromising the essential
ingredients of the sultanate
powers and grips over the
North, Ahmadu Bello gave
other groups a sense of
belonging.
For the Hausa majority, the
soothing balm was its
language being the Northern
lingua franca and a false sense
of shared destiny with the
Fulani. In addition to Tafawa
Balewa, a minority from
Bauchi Province being the
Prime Minister, the likes of
Shetim Ibrahim of Kanuri
extraction up to Awoniyi in
Okun Yoruba enclave were not
only seen to hold sway, the
youths of the Middle Belt
dominated the military,
notwithstanding the informed
resistance of the likes of
Joseph Tarka or Olawoyin.
The Buhari administration
appears to be changing the
narratives in its obvious efforts
to flaunt a Fulani hegemony
in every aspect of the lives of
Nigerians. Soon as the
government assumed power
and in contradiction of the
applauded inaugural mantra
of being for all and for no one,
Nigerians were told that the
degree of presidential
attention would be directly
proportional to the
percentage of votes scored by
the President in different
areas of the country.
Nigerians have their own
ways of determining the
trajectory of government
influence by looking at what
they termed strategic
Ministries, Departments and
Agencies of government.
They easily point to the NNPC,
Customs, Immigration,
Nigerian Ports Authority, etc.,
and the ethnic origins of the
heads thereof. They extend
their curiosities to the
headship of the security forces,
notwithstanding the pretext of
seniority and organisational
traditions. In this context, the
citizens are only being
fastidious on account of the
constitution ensuring that its
provision enthroning the
principles of federal character
are not treated with impunity.
In its nepotistic and
unconstitutional agenda in
favour of a particular group
or region, impunity reigns
supreme and institutions, their
laws and conventions were
early casualties. Officers of the
Customs Service who have
been praying to reach the
pinnacle of their careers were
shoved aside and a retired
Army Colonel, for no patriotic
reason, arrogantly chosen to
be Comptroller General of the
Customs. He, however,
considered it infradig, as a
military officer, to wear the
inferior uniform of the head
of the Customs, even when the
excuse was that appointment
at that level was political.
The Senate, relying on
indictment by the Department
of State Security, DSS, refused
to pass Ibrahim Magu as
chairman of the Economic
and Financial Crimes
Commission, EFCC. With so
much illegality, Magu was
retained as the head of the
EFCC, pretentiously, in acting
capacity for over five years.
The parliament now seems to
have been right in its
clairvoyant rejection of Magu
who ultimately lost the job on
allegations of corruption. The
situation with the Police and
the armed forces are not
different, where the headship
positions are forbidden for
some tribes, particularly the
Igbo of South East.
In other instances, such
heads are deliberately
perpetrated in office beyond
their pensionable years of
service, to allow people they
don’t want to reach retirement.
The preponderance of these
positions in the North West
and far North East appears
too coincidental with the
Fulani and Kanuri
physiognomy of the President.
So much for such ephemeral
positions people have made
up their minds to endure for
the tenure of this
administration, particularly
as oppositions by the political
parties, within and without
government, seems so
lethargic.
The hands of the Buhari
government became full when
it decided to touch the people
where it hurts most and it has
now lost foes and friends in
the process. From the ages,
human relationships have
been determined primarily by
access to land over which
most wars have been fought.
The nomadic cattle herders,
associated with the Fulani
ethnic nationality, primarily
want access to land free of
ownership. We were told they
have inalienable rights to
trespass. The people shouted
and a government
spokesman admonished the
people that it was wisdom to
yield land in preference for life.
The second cherished
condition for peaceful
coexistence is mutual respect
for women, be they sisters and
more seriously so, wives and
mothers. Thus, the man dies
in him who is powerless in the
face of molestation of his
woman. Like in some
armageddon, fathers, in
whose presence their children
were tortured, dismembered
and killed; their women raped
The need for
organised
response by the
people of the
South has
ultimately given
birth to the
Southern
Governors Forum
and the salutary
resolutions at its
two meetings held
so far
and killed, in their numbers,
were asked to seek peace with
their tormentors.
Southern Nigeria United
The permissive conduct or
body language of the Federal
Government soon
emboldened the herdsmen
and their terrorist armed
wing to operate with such
impunity. Rather than deal
with this illegal ethnic army,
the Federal Government
mobilised the military
against those who called for
resistance against evil. In the
face of a common foe,
Southern Nigeria seems
forced, by existential realities,
to do a compulsory appraisal
of their positions in Nigeria.
The constituent tribes are
now forced to realise that
there is no cause for the
artificial divisions among
them. Particularly between the
Yoruba and Igbo, apart from
the personal political rivalry
between the two leading icons
of the Nigerian federation,
Obafemi Awolowo and
Nnamdi Azikiwe, which were
deliberately orchestrated and
elevated to ethnic war by the
British in line with her plans
to hand over Nigeria to the
caliphate, the two groups have
no differences and now see the
need for synergy in the
interests of their peoples.
The common front of the
Southern nationalities have
given vent to the perpetual
struggle of the too numerous
tribes of Northern Nigeria for
genuine ethnic selfdetermination
within the
North and the federation. This
synergy is wrapped in the
collaboration among the
Afenifere, Ohaneze Ndigbo
and the Pan Niger Delta
Forum (South) and the
Middle Belt Forum
culminating in the Southern
and Middle Belt Leaders
Forum. The need for
organised response by the
people of the South has
ultimately given birth to the
Southern Governors Forum
and the salutary resolutions
at its two meetings held so far.
The North at war
The presumptions of a
monolithic North has been
shattered by the Buhari
administration. The
Fulanisation agenda,
whether planned or
permitted, has pitched the
Fulani against the rest of the
North, nay Nigeria. Either
in number or other factors,
the Fulani has no capacity
to take on the rest of Nigeria;
the perceived backing of
government makes all the
difference. In the North, the
survival of each emirate is
determined by the eternal
subjugation and oppression
of the majority Hausa. It
consists in the acceptance of
the superiority of the Fulani
and the belief in his divine
right to rule from the emir
to the village head and to
lead in the worship places.
The wild and widespread
activities of the armed
criminal herders have
opened the eyes of the
average Northerner,
including the dominant but
cooperative Hausa, to
defend their land,
livelihoods and existence.
This is the greatest worry of
the Northern ruling class.
The war which had been
localised in Southern
Kaduna and the Benue
region has now engulfed
Zamfara, Kebbi, Taraba
and Niger. The Emirs of
Zauzau, Muri and recently
Katsina Emirates know the
implications of the
consciousness of the
peasant Hausa, hence the
outcry against open grazing
and the calls for the people
to rise and defend
themselves. It is preferable
that the people rise against
the few criminals among
them than allow the
wretched of the earth give
the system a fight and bring
down the 217 years old
empire of Uthman Dan
Fodio.
The Arewa Consultative
Forum and the Northern
Elders Forum are sensitive to
the dangers ahead. These
organisations which still
fantasise the idea of
monolithic North, have
spread their tentacles and
opened their key offices to the
Middle Belt tribes. They tried
some solidarity measures
during the Petroleum Industry
Bill and the Electoral Act
Amendment debates. It was a
pyrrhic victory based mostly
on partisan considerations.
The die is cast. Is a counterrevolution
imminent?
Nigeria, we hail thee.